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My new used Apple II+

S

Soupwizard

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2008
Messages
206
Location
Vancouver, WA, USA
W00t, I finally have an Apple II+! A friend in college had a II+ and I always wanted one. My sister found it on craigslist in Nashville last year, I finally had her send it out and it has lots of goodies:

The usual:
II+ A2S1048A (MB: 820-0044-D)
Disk II Interface Card, 650-X104
2 x Disk II floppy drives
Epson APL Board (printer interface, as far as I can tell)
Monochrome green monitor (generic, 12" Kaga KG-12NU)
Kensington system saver (slightly unexpected)

And some boards I didn't expect:

Microsoft Softcard Premium, consisting of
- Microsoft SoftCard w/ Z-80A
- Microsoft RAMCard
- Videx Videoterm Card, adds upper/lower case, 80 columns

It come with boot disks for Apple DOS 3 something and CP/M, and a box of other software I haven't dug too far in yet.

Additionally, last year at a hamfest I found a Sanyo vm4209, which I think is the canonical little 9" monitor to use with the early Apple II's. It'll look good (and correct for time period) but not so great for everyday use. Still, pretty cool. I also have an Apple Monitor III in storage to dig out.

Questions:

1. What CP/M software runs on the Microsoft Softcard? Does it need special builds of software?

2. I only have the one Apple DOS disk, and I don't know if it's the latest version etc. What OS's do people run on their IIs these days?

3. How do I get software to the Apple? I imagine there's all sorts of disk images on the internet, but how do I get them from my pc to the apple II? Am guessing I'll need a serial card.

4. Some of the keys stick (either don't register on first press, or repeat several times). Recommendations on cleaning?

Things I need:
- serial card
- joystick (and games)
- color monitor, what's a good one? (Oregon Trail!)

thanks,
Jeff
 
Update:

Did some reading and it seems a good way to move disk images to an Apple II is to get a 3.5 floppy disk and controller for it, and use a Mac to either write the image directly to an 800k floppy, or move the images to an 800k floppy and then use Apple II to write images to floppy (for 5.25" images).

Sadly, I had a Liron Unidisk controller card a few years ago and sold it on ebay for good money. (operation "kick self in pants" now commencing).
 
Soupwizard said:
1. What CP/M software runs on the Microsoft Softcard? Does it need special builds of software?
Click to expand...

I'm not really an expert on this, but it should be able to run most of the standard CP/M stuff like Wordstar.

Soupwizard said:
2. I only have the one Apple DOS disk, and I don't know if it's the latest version etc. What OS's do people run on their IIs these days?
Click to expand...

Most likely it's DOS 3.3. Many people run ProDOS, but the II+ only has 48k of memory, so it can't run a lot of newer software. DOS 3.3 should be fine for it.

Soupwizard said:
3. How do I get software to the Apple? I imagine there's all sorts of disk images on the internet, but how do I get them from my pc to the apple II? Am guessing I'll need a serial card.
Click to expand...

Yes, you would need one, since Apple disks are completely foreign to PCs and can't be read by them at all.

You'd have to ask someone else about sticking keys, as I'm not real familiar with that problem.

Soupwizard said:
Things I need:
- serial card
- joystick (and games)
- color monitor, what's a good one? (Oregon Trail!)
Click to expand...

There were a variety of color composite monitors at the time. You could use an Apple monitor if you want to stay system authentic, or use a Commodore, Amdek, or similar display. Note that if you've got a TV with composite inputs (most sets made since the '90s have them), you can also use that as a monitor.
 
tingo said:
Just curious: does "only 48k" mean that ADTPro won't work on an Apple II+?
Click to expand...
You need 64k to run (almost all versions of) ProDOS, and ADTPro definitely needs it. Most II+ machines have a "Language card," which supplies the extra 16k. Jeff mentions he has a Microsoft RAMCard, which should bring him up to 64k.
Soupwizard said:
3. How do I get software to the Apple? I imagine there's all sorts of disk images on the internet, but how do I get them from my pc to the apple II? Am guessing I'll need a serial card.
Click to expand...
A serial card is the way to go. As tingo points out, ADTPro is the software you need.
 
Fallo said:
Most likely it's DOS 3.3. Many people run ProDOS, but the II+ only has 48k of memory, so it can't run a lot of newer software. DOS 3.3 should be fine for it.
Click to expand...

The Microsoft RAMcard is supposed to add 16K, so mine might have 64K total. [Edit: add, David Schmidt says the same thing, didn't see that reply at first]
 
Ahem...why not just get some old Apple II disks are run your software the old fashioned way? From an original disk? Not as sexy as all the cables and utilities but much easier!
 
Positron said:
Ahem...why not just get some old Apple II disks are run your software the old fashioned way? From an original disk? Not as sexy as all the cables and utilities but much easier!
Click to expand...

Originals are often hard to find, but that's not the problem with using them. The problem is that most have horrendous copy protections. For that reason, even if you have an original copy, you'd probably want to use the images from the net anyway.
 
What was the Liron Unidisk controller card and how did it differ from an ordinary Apple (?) Unidisk controller card ? I believe I have several Unidisk controller cards (as well as some duodisk cards). Was the Unidisk superior to the Disk II FDDs ?

Lawrence

Soupwizard said:
Update:

Sadly, I had a Liron Unidisk controller card a few years ago and sold it on ebay for good money. (operation "kick self in pants" now commencing).
Click to expand...
 
Micom 2000 said:
What was the Liron Unidisk controller card and how did it differ from an ordinary Apple (?) Unidisk controller card ?
Click to expand...
The Liron card was what you needed to hook up a 3.5" Unidisk to anything less than a IIgs. You can see a Unidisk (A2M2053) here:
http://www.vintagemacworld.com/drives.html
I believe I have several Unidisk controller cards (as well as some duodisk cards). Was the Unidisk superior to the Disk II FDDs ?
Click to expand...
Well, the Unidisk (A2M2053) was a 3.5", but if you mean the Unidisk 5.25" (A9M0104/A9M0107), it was a direct replacement for the Disk II and was functionally identical in every way (except maybe for the passthrough port that allowed you to daisy chain two drives together).
 
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